When he first mentioned his road trip he said he wanted to do it at Christmas. That seems like a hell of a lot of SCs to get done in less than 4 months!

If he's "finalised" the plans however, that would lead me to believe, planning permissions, contracts etc. have been signed and sealed at least for one EAST-WEST route. What do you guys think? Do we have any insider info on SCs that will be opened in the immediate future?

Nicoletta | 8. September 2013

I read yesterday that the one in Waco, Texas will be formally announced Tuesday morning.

up north | 8. September 2013

I think I remember him saying he wanted to go up to mount rushmore and then east.

carlgo | 8. September 2013

He certainly doesn't want a photo of him at some seedy motel with string of Ace Hardware extension cords going out of his room's window to his Tesla out back by the dumpster.

I think the trip is a terrible idea. The network will be tenuous at best and any glitch at all will be photographed and shown by every news station. A lot of things have to go perfectly for this to work and there will be no alternatives like redundant Supercharging stations.

Araujor20 | 8. September 2013

I think for the most part everybody wants him to succeed . Electric cars have been a long time coming.HE has built an amazing car. I am not a 1% er me and my wife average annual salary is 120k combined. And we are able to afford the payment. I have solar which helps make it affordable. I am planning a trip from California to DC this summer, so I hope he will nail it. Good luck Elon

olanmills | 8. September 2013

I understand your concerns, carlgo. Because of the assumed media attention, I am assuming that Tesla techs will be checking and making sure that each station is working properly before Elon gets to each one.

Skotty | 11. September 2013

I don't know, but I wish he was going to travel on I-70 instead of I-90. I looked around for traffic statistics and didn't find anything concrete, but I have to believe that I-70 is a far more traveled route and would serve a lot more customers. If I'm wrong, then tell me, and I'll stand corrected.

ian t.wa.us | 12. September 2013

The route he chose is the one he and his brother took from East to West before he started at Stanford (I believe). It's got nothing to do with the "most travelled" or anything, just sentimental.

Cheers!

carlgo | 12. September 2013

marcoooo12: We live in a snarky time. People are cynical and pile on any sign of weakness or failure. Any setback will be magnified on the nightly news and perhaps cause millions of potential buyers to lose faith, waiting for later "when the bugs have all been worked out".

You can expect certain entertainment news outlets to shadow the trip, hoping for failure. Failure would have more of an effect than success would. And you can see smirking hosts throwing in politics and all that.

olanmills: certainly there will be advance people with trucks full of tools and Supercharger parts. I would also expect security and other support personnel. Still, I fear some fool will sabotage a station and seriously delay things. Or some part that has never failed will, hundreds of miles from a Tesla service center. You can be sure the part won't be in stock. That is just how it goes as the forces of the universe tend to make success difficult.

Perhaps the compromise is to do this unannounced, on the sly, but with a crew to record it and ultimately release a video of the journey in the most effective way, editing as required. I would like to see Tesla control the presentation and not leave it up to those who may have a hateful agenda.

robby81 | 12. September 2013

carlgo: I agree, making the road trip unannounced the best idea and I'm sure this is what Elon will do, followed by a cheeky pic on twitter at the finish line. Anything else would be asking for trouble.

I was more wondering though how they're gonna get all those SC's done in 4 months ??

bent | 13. September 2013

A failure on the trip might be even better than a 100% successful one. In part because a failure will be more newsworthy and so will get more media attention, exposing people who never even thought it imaginable to the idea that yes there are in fact people working very seriously on coast-to-coast EV charging; and in part because a failure every now and then can perversely make the thing more credible than if it seems to go from one success story to the next. All success all the time just comes across as spin rather than a factual account.

"The coast to coast trip was held up by technical problems along the way" is going to be enough of a success that the people who are currently potential EV buyers may decide to come off the fence on Tesla's side. Enough people will accept that there will be technical hiccups in a completely new infrastructure project that Tesla's order books will stay full at least until the Model E hits 100k units/year.

Of course, haters still gonna hate but what can you do.

Finally, Musk didn't achieve success by never taking any risks. :-)

Haeze | 13. September 2013

The key will be in making the "failure" something minor. If it prevented him from completing the trip, it would be bad. If it just meant he had to spend another hour waiting for someone to come unplug their car, that would be minor, and easily solvable.

Mark22 | 15. September 2013

Just because work hasn't been completed on the string of superchargers doesn't mean they are not all in process.
Superchargers are not a monumental task from building them. They are a bigger task due to red tape. So having 10 in red tape stage at once isn't unreasonable.

jstack6 | 16. September 2013

their website shows 21 in and working today Sept 16th 2013. more coming all the time. by the end of 2013 is will be great, by 2015 when my Tesla C Gen III is out it will be amazing.

JHM | 17. September 2013

Maybe Musk should take a few lumps of coal with him just in case...to make fun of that guy who says the Model S is a coal-powered vehicle.

Go_Peddle_4_me | 18. September 2013

The website now shows 23 up and running. Two more in just two days. They are coming, soon to a parking lot near you!

bonaire | 18. September 2013

Do you guys know the Indian Rope Trick and how Penn and Teller framed it? Just hearing about the trick made people believe it had happened.

Effectively, Musk announcing the trip is the trip. The announcement itself has more value talking about the trip than actually doing it. Same for Gen-III 4-years out and even the Model-X generating 7000 reservations and holding the money of those reservations. Won't be able to get one until 2015 but like video-game "pre-orders" (another ridiculous marketing ploy) - this activity is a money-maker.

Of course he'll make it. Of course, if the SCs operate properly it will be a non-event. But the talk of the future trip now versus saying "I just did a trip" holds far more value. And it will sell cars now when it is most important - during the kick-off year of the Model-S. Q3 and Q4 sales are incredibly important and the trip won't happen until those are done (ie. Christmas).

robby81 | 21. September 2013

Good point bonaire.

SC openings have just picked up in the last couple of weeks after a lull in Summer.

Get a good feeling about every SC opening. It's like a "well that's a chunk of CO2 that will never make it into our atmosphere!" :-)

Cheers.

teslajolt | 21. September 2013

bump

stewart.horner | 25. September 2013

You can be pretty sure of 1 thing. He wont be the 1st to make the trip. they will send at least 2 or 3 cars on the same journey as soon as the stations are up and running, if not before ! Im sure it will be a great success.